An Arcade Bar And Hackerspace, All In One

May 30, 2016 by Brian Benchoff 3 Comments

Hamvention was last weekend, and just like Hackaday’s expedition to Maker Faire, it was only fitting to find a bunch of Hackaday fans and take over a bar. This was in Dayton, Ohio, and you would think the nightlife for Hamvention would be severely lacking. Not so, as downtown Dayton is home to Proto BuildBar, a bar, arcade, and hackerspace all wrapped into one.

We’ve heard about Proto BuildBar a few years ago when it first opened. The idea is relatively simple; instead of having a hackerspace, with alcohol and video games on the side, Proto BuildBar is first and foremost a bar, with 3D printing services, a few workstations for soldering, and a few arcade games. It’s the perfect place for an impromptu meetup.

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How To Build A Tron Bar That Daft Punk Would Hang Out At

June 24, 2013 by Mike Szczys 24 Comments

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Sure, the bar in this image looks pretty neat. But the video showing off its synchronization with the music brings it to the next level. The flashing lights and EL wire put on a quite a show that may make the bartenders feel like they’ve already had a few too many.

The most amusing part of the project is that it all started from that half bookcase mounted on the wall. [Alexander Givens] and his roommate decided to augment its usefulness as a liquor cabinet by building a bar around it. But why stop there? LED Strips and 120 feet of elecroluminescent wire give the bar its inner glow. The illuminated lines are obvious, but the LED strip locations may not be. Several of them light the shelves hosting liquor and glass wear. The bartop itself is made of glass, filled with 75 pounds of marbles, and lit from underneath by the rest of the strips.

An Arduino Mega with an EL shield drives the system. The guys built a rudimentary control interface that looks partially spill tolerant. It’s located just under the inside lip of the bar.

Their costumes came out pretty well too. But with a built-in centerpiece like this they may want to upgrade to a more accurate replica.

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Class Up Your Next Party With The Drink Making Unit 2.0

April 4, 2011 by Mike Nathan 7 Comments

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The crew over at [Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories] has been hard at work preparing for the Barbot 2011 cocktail robotic exhibition. This year, they are packing some serious drinking fun with the Drink Making Unit 2.0. The predictably named follow-up to last year’s wildly popular Drink Making Unit doubles the mixing capability with six, rather than three fluids, and provides a visually stimulating drink mixing experience.

While they are similarly named, the new unit has been completely redesigned since last year. No longer are they relying on breast pumps to move the alcohol along. Instead, they are using compressed air to dispense fluids from wash bottles which were constructed from laboratory beakers. The fluids are measured in specially altered graduated cylinders that are designed to tip over and release their contents when the appropriate amount of alcohol has been poured. These cylinders are designed to mimic the movement of Japanese garden fixtures called “deer chasers”, tipping back and forth solely powered by the ingress and egress of liquid.

The dispenser’s control panel houses an ATmega164, which orchestrates the entire operation. It interfaces with the LED driver boards that make up the display via SPI. The micro controller is also tasked with monitoring when the graduated cylinders tip their libations into the dispensing funnel, which is done using IR LEDs and photogates.

It’s a great looking machine, and while there isn’t any drink mixing video as of yet, we can’t wait to see it in action.

Third-person Vehicle

April 6, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 27 Comments

Here is something we didn’t expect (NSFW). The machinima crew behind RedVsBlue, Rooster Teeth, actually did a hack!

The idea is simple enough, how could you experience driving a vehicle like in a video game – aka, third-person. With some steel bar, Canon 5D camera, and a 15inch monitor inside of a blacked out cab, they accomplished just that.

What surprised us the most, is the great difficulty and difference there is between the video game vehicle and the real life one. But all of us here at HAD know why; they need to replace the steering wheel with a joystick. While they’re at it they can make it wireless and remote-controlled. Finally a HUD would be easy enough to program (might we suggest processing). Oh dear lord, is the world ready for this!?

Drink Making Unit

February 17, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 35 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC9l1jO7Lyc]

3 breast pumps, a Meggy jr RGB (slightly modified) and copious amounts of alcohol. This sounds like a typical weekend at HAD headquarters, but it is in fact the parts list for the Drink Making Unit by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Created for the upcoming Barbot 2010 event, this unit is a cocktail mixer. Load 3 liquids in, program the Meggy and you can push a button to dispense. We are pleased to see how much they modified off the shelf components to make this happen. Yes, there could be major improvements like mixing, more liquid reservoirs, and a better cooling system, but we think this thing is pretty slick.

Bar2d2 Gets Automated

February 24, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 24 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITcC3QazHyg]

When we showed you Bar2d2, the bar tending party bot, there was one huge hurdle left to solve. It was only a drink dispenser at that, while awesome, couldn’t actually mix drinks. That has been remedied in this update. Now, a computer handles all of the drink orders, then sends them via bluetooth to bar2d2. The drinks are mixed right there in front of you in the comforting blue glow of bar2d2’s neon. You can check out more build pictures here.

The Pinnacle Of Modern Robotics: Bar2D2

September 29, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 8 Comments

[Jamie Price] directed us to this photostream of the build for Bar2D2. Though it isn’t the first bartender bot we’ve covered. It very well could be the best executed. Bar2D2 can travel around the party dispensing bottles of beer, shots, and even cans. The construction looks fantastic. You can follow along in the photostream from the very beginning. It is currently radio controlled and can party for about 8 hours per charge. The next planned upgrade is a system that allows you to choose a mixed drink from a database and Bar2D2 will mix it up.

As you can see from the pictures, Bar2D2 is the life of the party, attracting pretty girls and cheesy sci-fi tv pirate astronauts too.